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Nine-Fingers Keene
Legendary Creature — Human Rogue
Menace Ward—Pay 9 life. Whenever Nine-Fingers Keene deals combat damage to a player, look at the top nine cards of your library. You may put a Gate card from among them onto the battlefield. Then if you control nine or more Gates, put the rest into your hand. Otherwise, put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
4 / 4
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“Combat-damage ramp that tutors Gates and draws cards for Grixis control.”
Midrange
Intermediate
Combat damage, Alt-win
Ramp, Control, Landfall
Strategy
Nine-Fingers Keene is a sneaky ramp commander that turns combat damage into library tutoring. Every time Keene swings through, you're mining your deck for Gate lands and potentially drawing cards if you've assembled enough of them. The core gameplan is to build a Gate-heavy manabase, use Keene's evasive body (menace + ward) to pressure opponents, and accelerate into bigger plays while fixing your mana. Once you hit nine Gates, you're essentially drawing cards off combat damage, which snowballs your advantage quickly.
The deck leans midrange: ramp early with cheap creatures and removal, connect with Keene to stockpile resources, then leverage that mana advantage into threats or control magic. You can lean into Gate payoffs like Maze's End for an alternate win condition, or simply use the acceleration to play bigger finishers. Ward keeps Keene relatively safe from spot removal, forcing opponents to make tough choices about whether to pay nine life.
Build around creatures that synergize with Gates, sacrifice outlets for added value, and card draw to keep your hand full. Keene rewards you for playing a focused mana strategy, so lean into it—Gates become your engine, not just your mana base.
Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.
Key Synergies
Budget Build
Skip expensive dual lands; Keene already generates mana, so budget Gatelands like Gateway Plaza and Gruul Guildgate do the heavy lifting. Replace premium draw with Read the Bones or Divination.
Signature Cards
Inclusion = % of Nine-Fingers Keene decks running this card. +lift = percentage-point boost over the format average.
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Art Variants
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